Faculty-Staff Achievements, Sept. 5, 2011

Awards

Joe Murphy, community coordinator, Office of Residential Life, was the 2011 recipient of the Rising Star Award at the Northeast Association of College and University Housing Officers (NEACUHO) annual conference June 8-11 at the Rochester Institute of Technology. This annual award reimbursement is given to a new professional for the purpose of attending a first Association of College and University Housing Officers-International (ACUHO-I) annual conference and exposition. Funding is intended to defray registration, lodging, meals, and travel expenses. This honor is sponsored by ACUHO-I. At the same June conference,

Tracy LeaHensley, residence hall director, Office of Residential Life, was the 2011 recipient of the James Casey New Professional Award. The award honors the late James Casey, former director of residential life at SUNY-Cortland and one of the founding members of NEACUHO, for his contribution to and support of NEACUHO, most notably his efforts to empower entry-level new professionals in the housing/residential life field. This award reimburses up to $350 toward registration for the NEACUHO annual conference. The recipient must submit a program proposal to present at the annual conference, with priority given to a program proposal that is pertinent to new professionals in housing/residential life. This honor is sponsored by NEACUHO. 

Denise Smith, professor, and Patricia Fehling, professor and chair of exercise science, received a grant totaling nearly $1 million in June from the federal Department of Homeland Security, to continue their work in studying the health of firefighters. Read more.   

Activities

Mary DiSanto-Rose, associate professor of dance, Susi Kerr, senior museum educator at the Tang, and sculptor Beverly Mastrianni '76 participated in "Art, Music, Dance: The Last 25 Years," July 21 at the National Museum of Dance. The program featured arts professionals who have 25 or more years of experience in the field. Wendy Liberatore, arts writer and critic, moderated the discussion, one of a series of events marking the 25 ^th anniversary of the National Museum of Dance.

Environmental Studies faculty participated in the June 23-26 Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences meeting in Burlington, Vermont.AESS is a new professional organization that annually creates an interdisciplinary setting for exchanging ideas about environmental studies and sciences. The first meeting was held in Portland, Oregon, last summer.

A presentation titled "Crooked Waters: A History of Riparian Conflict and Common Law in the Kayaderosseras Watershed, New York," co-written by Karen Kellogg, associate professor of environmental studies, and Michael C. Ennis-McMillan, professor of anthropology, with Nadine S. Dodge '10, and Brad K. Nesbitt '09, was presented. Ennis-McMillan and Kellogg also presented "Environmental History AND Ethnoecology of Aquatic Invasive Species: Conflicting Perspectives on Watershed Management in Upstate New York." They were co-authors of the presentation, with Molley Bergen and Leah Wohl Pollack.

Kellogg served on the AESS Outreach and Membership Committee and chaired the Sponsorship Committee for the Burlington meeting.

Josh Ness, assistant professor of environmental studies, Michael Marx, associate professor of English and director of ES, and Sue Van Hook, who retired recently from biology, gave a panel presentation on "The Pedagogy of Place: Seeing the Forest for More than the Trees," highlighting the experiences of Skidmore students with the North Woods. Kim Marsella, ES program coordinator and lecturer, presented during the session titled Career Advising in ESS: Demystifying Green Job Counseling discussing "The Role of Academic Advising in Career Counseling for ES Students."


Two members of the Office of Residential Life staff presented at theNortheast Association of College and University Housing Officers (NEACUHO) annual conference June 8-11 at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Tracy Lea Hensley, residence hall director, gave a talk titled "The Art of Finding Lost Time," which focused on helping participants identify time-wasters, establish S.M.A.R.T. Goals, free themselves from procrastination, prioritize work, and create a personal energy grid. Joe Murphy, community coordinator, gave a presentation titled "Building an AWESOME Applicant Pool, One RA at a Time," which explained the development and successes in the Resident Assistant staff selection process at Skidmore over the past three years.

Dan Nathan and Greg Pfitzer of the Department of American Studies participated July 25 in a digital videoconference, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, with Slovakian scholars at the Center for North American Studies at the University of Economics in Bratislava. Nathan and Pfitzer were asked to help the Slovakian administrators modify their American Studies introductory course, including suggestions on course materials, lecturers, and subjects. Thanks in part to the assistance of the Hunt Conard and Ben Harwood from Information Technology, who set up and managed the technology here, the digital videoconference was a success.

Ron Seyb, Joseph C. Palamountain Professor of Government, was the keynote speaker at the June 5 annual meeting of the League of Women Voters of Saratoga County. His talk was titled "Who Speaks for Me- Free Speech, the Constitution and Corporations," and focused on financial influence by corporations on political campaigns.

Gordon Thompson, professor of music, was one of three authors participating in "The British Are Coming!" a reading and discussion about the British music invasion of the 1960s, at the Kleinert/James Arts Center, Woodstock, N.Y., July 2. The event, which also included Tony Fletcher and Jonathan Gould, was sponsored by the Golden Notebook.   

Publications, Performances, & Exhibitions

Regis Brodie, professor emeritus of art, has a solo exhibition titled "Defining Harmony: Paintings, Sculptures, and Vessels" on view through Sept. 27 at the Rose Lehrman Art Gallery at Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Community College.

Steven Millhauser, Tisch Professor in Arts and Letters and professor of English, is the author ofWe Others: New and Selected Stories,released in August by Knopf.

Lary Opitz, professor and chair, Department of Theater, performed the role of Shylock this summer in the Saratoga Shakespeare Company's production of The Merchant of Venice. Read a review of the production here.

David Porter, president emeritus and currently Skidmore'sTisch Family Distinguished Professor, and his wife, Helen, are the authors ofIn Her Own Words: The Date Books of Lucy Skidmore Scribner, Founder of Skidmore College. Read more.